In November 2022, Michael traveled to Austin to celebrate his friend's wedding. A lover of lindy hop, Michael found out that Austin Lindy Exchange (a yearly Austin swing dancing event) was taking place throughout that entire weekend and planned to dance the days leading up to the Sunday evening wedding. Alayna, who had been swing dancing regularly ever since she moved to Austin in 2017, was also at this event, wearing her vintage style sweater and standing on the edge of the ballroom between dances. Michael asked Alayna to dance Friday, and later that night they chatted while Alayna ate the last taco at the complementary food bar. Throughout the rest of the dance weekend, Michael playfully flirted with Alayna, and she did absolutely nothing to encourage it. His unabashed confidence caught her completely off-guard. No numbers were exchanged. No talk of further communication was had. Nothing... Until Alayna, driving home late at night from the third night of the dance event, talked to her mom on the phone. She mentioned this tall, Christian, handsome guy who was talking to her a lot but said she "wasn't sure about him and wasn't used to people flirting with her." Her mother, in an unanticipated wingwoman moment, encouraged Alayna to figure out how to flirt and to ask him out for coffee. The last day of the event, unsure if Michael would even be there (he was in town for a wedding after all) Alayna arrived at the last dance event. She found herself circling around the parking lot, looking for a spot for no less than 30 minutes! After parking, Alayna fortunately spotted Michael up by the band. She caught him for his FINAL DANCE before leaving for his friend's wedding. After a slow, romantic swing dance, numbers were exchanged and their first date was planned for the next day. Michael even tried to get Alayna to crash the wedding he was attending! Their first date was the next day--a solid Austin experience of Terry Black's BBQ and a long Town Lake walk. After Michael went back to Virginia they spent many (many) hours on the phone. Ten visits back and forth and a year and half later, Michael, unsure of the future but sure of his love for Alayna, quit his job, packed up his life in a shipping pod and made the big move to Austin. Eight months after the move, while in Virginia for Christmas, Michael asked Alayna to marry him on the same beach he first told her "I love you."